The invention is directed to a process for the production of water insoluble peroxycarboxylic acids.
These types of compounds are not only employed as oxidation agents in organic syntheses but also in the washing or bleaching of textiles since their action occurs even at temperatures below 80.degree. C.
There have already been published a number of different processes for the production of water insolube peroxycarboxylic acids.
European published application A-2-0045290 is directed to a process for the production of peroxycarboxylic acids in which the starting carboxylic acids are dissolved in concentrated sulfuric acid and the peracids formed by oxidation with hydrogen peroxide are continuously extracted with an organic solvent.
Likewise, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,660, there is described a process in which the starting carboxylic acids are dissolved in a large excess of sulfuric acid and are subsequently reacted to form the perocarboxylic acids.
In this process the sulfuric acid acts as catalyst and solvent for the starting carboxylic acid.
Since the catalytic action, however, even occurs at small concentrations, the use of these amount is also possible in the known process.
It has been found, however, that in this case in the production of water insoluble peroxycarboxylic acids having at least 6 carbon atoms there occurs strong foam formation if the starting carboxylic acid is not present in dissolved form in the reaction mixture but instead forms a suspension.
The problem of the invention was to develop a process for the production of peroxycarboxylic acids having at least 6 carbon atoms in which there is suppressed the formation of foam.